The Healing Garden of the Virgin Mary

Next to Großgmain's pilgrimage church and overlooked by the mythical Unterberg mountain is a garden that fuses nature and art, linking nature and philosophy, religion and mythology, astrology and numerology into an integrated holistic world view.In the centre of a circle of flowers and herbs planted according to the zodiac at the time of the official opening on 15th August 2001 at 10.30am, stands a statue of Sophia-Maria, a new symbol of art and theology in the western world. According to Holy Scripture, she is the soul, the mother of all creation who became flesh in Mary. She is the embodiment of unity through the female principle of love.

Mary's Well

In the Bible, our world is always perceived as having creative female energy, as being a living organism from which the plants, fruits and animals spring, an organism with intrinsic value which is not merely a consumer product for mankind.All of creation is animate and the Bible speaks of Sophia, the personified wisdom of God and the world's spirit, who became flesh in Mary and who, as the mother of all creation, radiates a new holistic state of consciousness. Only a cosmic religious feeling that sees the world as God's creation can bring true renewal. If the world is the body and clothing of the world's spirit, our Maria-Sophia, we can feel secure in our world. Then people of faith will live reverently upon it, respect and value creation and come to a compassionate understanding of nature.